The main components of a motor vehicle drivetrain are a drive motor and a transmission. A transmission converts torques and speeds and so transforms the traction force provided by the drive motor. The present invention concerns a method for the operation of a drivetrain, which comprises at least a drive motor and an automatic transmission. The automatic transmission had a total of five shift elements to transfer the torque or force in any forward gear and in a reverse gear. In each case, two shift elements are engaged and three shift elements are disengaged. In the context of the present invention, the term “automatic transmission” is understood to mean any transmission that effects automatic gear changes, known as variable-speed transmissions.
From DE 100 35 479 A1, a method for operating an automatic transmission is known, where successive upshifts and successive downshifts can be carried out with some overlap in order to improve the shift speed. For this, during each first upshift or downshift, a shift element needed for the subsequent second upshift or downshift is prepared while the first upshift or downshift is in progress in such a manner that when a synchronization point is reached, namely, a synchronous speed of the first upshift or downshift in progress, the subsequent second upshift or downshift can be carried out immediately.
In this way, according to DE 100 35 479 A1, single shifts are overlapped with one another, which means that as each first upshift or downshift carried out, a subsequent second upshift or downshift is carried out as a single shift between the two directly successive gears.
Starting from this, the present invention addresses the problem of providing a new type of method for the operation of a drivetrain comprising at least an automatic transmission and a drive motor.